Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Published on: December 12, 2012

Number-based visual generalisation in the honeybee.

Hans J Gross¹, Mario Pahl, Aung Si

¹Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

|January 29, 2009

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Changing Perceptions of Ornamental Plants in Urban Yangon, Myanmar.

Plants (Basel, Switzerland)·2025

Same author

Patterns in fish naming ability in two fishing communities of Myanmar.

Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine·2023

Same author

Patterns in the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge: a case study from Arnhem Land, Australia.

Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine·2020

Same author

The "Clever Hans Phenomenon" revisited.

Communicative & integrative biology·2014

Same author

Tirapazamine sensitizes hepatocellular carcinoma cells to topoisomerase I inhibitors via cooperative modulation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α.

Molecular cancer therapeutics·2013

Same author

Gender differences of brain glucose metabolic networks revealed by FDG-PET: evidence from a large cohort of 400 young adults.

PloS one·2013

Same journal

Modeling and analysis of forward and inverse kinematics for a flexible Stewart platform.

PloS one·2026

Same journal

Barriers and facilitators to healthcare utilization amongst people living with sickle cell disease in the United States: A scoping review.

PloS one·2026

Same journal

Enhancing data completeness in time series: Imputation strategies for missing data using significant periodically correlated components.

PloS one·2026

Same journal

Key targets and mechanisms by which gut microbiota-derived metabolites regulate Alzheimer's disease through the immune - inflammatory pathway: Based on network pharmacology and molecular docking.

PloS one·2026

Same journal

Grid-tied Transformer-less Boost Switched Capacitor Topology (TLBSCT) for PV applications.

PloS one·2026

Same journal

The load-velocity profiles and exercise-specific velocity zones for seven commonly used weightlifting exercises.

PloS one·2026

See all related articles

Honeybees demonstrate numerical competence by matching visual patterns based on the number of elements. This study is the first to show number-based visual generalization in an invertebrate.

Area of Science:

Cognitive ethology
Invertebrate cognition
Animal numerical abilities

Background:

Numerical competence is well-studied in vertebrates, but less so in invertebrates.
Honeybees (Apis mellifera) possess advanced cognitive abilities, making them suitable for numerical cognition research.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the numerical competence of honeybees using a delayed match-to-sample paradigm.
To determine the limits of honeybees' ability to match visual patterns based solely on the number of elements.

Main Methods:

A y-maze was used to test honeybees' ability to differentiate patterns with varying numbers of elements.
Delayed match-to-sample tasks were employed to assess numerical discrimination and generalization.
Control experiments ruled out alternative visual cues like color, configuration, area, edge length, and illusory contours.

More Related Videos

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Published on: July 21, 2014

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Published on: November 15, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Tactile Conditioning And Movement Analysis Of Antennal Sampling Strategies In Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Published on: December 12, 2012

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Simultaneous Long-term Recordings at Two Neuronal Processing Stages in Behaving Honeybees

Published on: July 21, 2014

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Radio Frequency Identification and Motion-sensitive Video Efficiently Automate Recording of Unrewarded Choice Behavior by Bumblebees

Published on: November 15, 2014

Main Results:

Honeybees could differentiate patterns with two versus three elements.
They generalized this ability to distinguish three from four elements without further training.
However, bees trained on a two-versus-three task failed to distinguish between higher numbers (e.g., four vs. five).

Conclusions:

This study provides the first evidence of number-based visual generalization in an invertebrate.
Honeybees exhibit a basic level of numerical competence, capable of abstracting numerical information from visual stimuli.
The findings suggest that numerical abilities may be more widespread across the animal kingdom than previously thought.